At an afternoon press conference, the Rev. Jesse Jackson asked, "Is this about boundaries or race?"

"This decision's untimely and inappropriate at this time," Jackson told reporters. "It should not take six months after a team has played a championship game to determine eligibility to play the game in the first place."

The league's decision came after teams from Illinois and Nevada complained that Jackie Robinson West's roster was rigged.

The Rev. Michael Pfleger called the complaints from the Illinois team "mean-spirited" and "personal."

Well, technically, they were never World Championship- they lost outright to the Korean's Seoul team, 6-0, who were hands down the most dominant team in the tournament. The Chicago team was technically only champions of the US bracket.

I am sure when the distributorship for Anheuser Busch for the third largest city in the country (basically a license to print money) went to Jesse Jackson's son, it was after a wide-open and fair search of all candidates, their qualifications, experience, etc, etc, etc.

""This decision's untimely and inappropriate at this time," Jackson told reporters. "It should not take six months after a team has played a championship game to determine eligibility to play the game in the first place."

So if you are a good cheat, and don't get caught quickly, then it's all good.

This Little League team has: (1.) corporate sponsors (McDonald's! not Joe the Plumber or Niko's Gyros); (2.) recruits from the entire City of Chicago (not just the local sandlot); (3.) utilizes high quality athletic facilities at local colleges (for free!); (4.) has coaches that are paid handsome salaries; (5.) has professional doctors (even sports psychiatrists!) give free strength and conditioning tutorials; (6.) uses super luxury buses; (7.) stay at nice hotels, not crappy motels (not just the kids, but the moms and dads or "dads"); (8.) there is an eight through a thousand. Even the parents expect their kids to be compensated for their "contributions to society"! The parents told, actually spoke these words, to prominent news readers from network affiliates. The kids (!) believe that their "accomplishments" are even more remarkable because of the racism that infects our society. The kids (!) have been interviewed by local media and demand an audience with Obama! Basically, these are crazy, awful people. Total creeps and NOT victims!

What I’m not seeing anywhere in the story is where the members of the team or their supporters claim that in fact their players complied with the rules of the game which lead to their later disqualification. Everything else is noise.

I am getting tired of people defending the team, saying "they're still champions to me" and the like. Had they followed the rules, the team as it existed simply wouldn't have been, and the team as it would have been, would not have won. It's reported that 4 or 5 of the 13 kids lived out-of-boundary. This is not a trivial matter, and condoning cheating by saying "everyone else is doing it" or "it's unfair because you should have caught me before things got this far" isn't any better.

Once again, The Chicago Way.

(and flip the Tribune from page 8 to page 7 and you get another instance: the Park District handing over Park land to build the Obama museum/shrine.)

Mike Golic has been pretty pointed that the blame falls squarely on the coach and parents, and not/not the children- the children of Jackie Robinson West were as much victims as the other kids on the other teams.

As he points out, the kids would have all known each other and played against each other coming up over the years, and would have known whom the ringers were, but probably didn't know they were actually "ringers." After all, when the coach told the kids, "hey, the boundaries have changed so we're gonna get to add Homerun Timmy, Speedy Ray and Fastball Johnny," it isn't like a single one of these kids would have been like "You're a liar coach, let me see the rule change!"

Of course, like Golic, I'm a former coach, and I have to agree with him that the parents are the absolute worst part of coaching. Not even a close second, either.

For those wondering about why it took six months, here’s the timeline:

“In September 2014, following the conclusion of the Little League Baseball World Series, a league official from a neighboring district in Illinois first expressed concerns pertaining to players’ residencies to the attention of the Little League Central Region staff in Indianapolis, Ind.

At the end of October, that local league official then provided additional documentation to support his allegations. Little League International operations staff fully reviewed the allegation and information. Using age and residency/school attendance and boundary documentation provided to Little League International by Jackie Robinson West Little League and verified by the District Administrator, Little League International determined the players’ eligibility based on all of the information that had been provided at that time.

In mid-December, during this process, however, Little League began to learn of multiple issues with boundary maps and operational process with multiple leagues in Illinois District 4. In an effort to be fair to all the leagues in Illinois District 4, Little League International began organizing one-on-one, private meetings with leagues in the district where they could discuss their concerns and work on preparing for the 2015 season.

In early January, through a media report, Little League first learned of a league within Illinois District 4 alleging misconduct by Jackie Robinson West Little League.

On January 31, Little League International officials held meetings with Illinois District 4 officials and the leagues in the district. During these meetings, Little League International learned of several operational issues within the entire District that have occurred over the course of many years under different leadership at the District level. These issues are spread amongst leagues throughout the district and include a breakdown in communication of roles and responsibilities among District and league leadership and misunderstandings in multiple league boundaries.

Various local league officials confirmed that the boundary issues stem from a boundary map redrafting process that started prior to the 2013 season and includes maps that were agreed upon amongst all the leagues, but had never been properly submitted to Little League International through the official process.

Little League International also learned that Jackie Robinson West Little League knowingly expanded its boundaries to include territory that belonged to other leagues in the district without approval from the other leagues or the Little League International Charter Committee, as stated in Little League’s Official Regulations and Playing Rules.

Little League International also found that Jackie Robinson West Little League used a falsified boundary map for their 2014 tournament, and that Jackie Robinson West Little League officials met with other leagues in Illinois District 4 to try to get the territory they wrongfully claimed was theirs for their 2014 tournament. The decision is based on falsifying documents and illegally expanding boundaries to include residences that would verify the players’ eligibility.”

Knowingly enforcing the rules based on race would be discrimination even if JRW cheated.

But there is no evidence for this. The disqualification of the white team from Georgia refutes this allegation.

Undoubtedly this type of violation of the residency rule goes on in other local Little Leagues. But Little League doesn't have the resources to investigate every allegation and mete out punishment. It's almost always going to be the All Star teams that go far in the 11-12 year old Little League World Series tournament who are going to be investigated.

You can't punish anyone unless you investigate everyone is an impossible standard.

Nice work. Also, Little League boundaries are not necessarily residence based, though most kids live within the boundaries. If a kid attends school within a Little League boundary, the player can play in that league even if the player's residence is within a different Little League boundary. The reason for this is that Little League International wants to encourage as many kids to play as possible and thinks that a kid might be more inclined to play in a league where his friends from school play.

Haha, but honestly that wouldn't have helped the Dominicans... They didn't win a single game during the Caribbean qualification- they lost to the Bahamas, Curacao and Aruba, never even got a chance to play the Puerto Ricans who wound up taking the Caribbean qualification spot.

Ever heard Pfleger preach, just audio, no visual? His voice, cadence, tone, accent, colloquialisms, subject matter all would make you believe you're hearing Wright, or Sharpton, or Jackson or any other black anti-American race-baiter, but he's white. Do they teach this speaking style in seminary school?

Yeah, the "six months" standard is absurd- it took the NCAA years to finally catch Pete Carroll and Jim Tressell, among many many others. That Auburn has (thus far) managed to escape the Cam Newton's Father recruiting shenanigans is pretty absurd, though.

If I were holding a press conference on behalf of the Little League International, I would issue a statement like this:

“Our investigation revealed that there were at least five (or whatever the actual number was) players on the Chicago team that lived outside the district and had the team followed the rules would not have been eligible to play on the Chicago team. Which means that there were at least five children in Chicago who were denied the opportunity to play little league on the Chicago team. Unfortunately we do not know which of the dozens (or hundreds) of kids who tried out for the Chicago team would have been among that five that should have played last year had the Chicago team followed the rules. If you are the parent or guardian of a child living in the Chicago district who tried out for little league and did not make the team during tryouts, you would need to speak to the managers (or whatever the correct term is) of the Chicago team to find out if your child lost the chance to play little league on the Chicago team because they recruited players from outside the district.”

"If I were holding a press conference on behalf of the Little League International, I would issue a statement like this:..."

^^^^This. Not only does it give the public the key relevant facts --thus undercutting the talk of racism-- it changes the battlespace to one in which a key constituency of those hurt by the cheating can mobilize and attack. That is a force multiplier and a game-changer. What is Jesse going to tell THOSE people?

Little League has exceptionally strict rules regarding eligibility. My son was not a great ballplayer but he had a chance to try out for an all-star team at the 10-year-old level, one year before regular Little League. Just to try out, we needed to produce a copy of his birth certificate and prove that he lived with us at an address within the district boundaries. If you have ringers of any sort and they find out, you get bounced.

The problem isn't the kids — it's the parents and coaches who want their moment in the sun.

Were I a black parent trying to teach my child ethics, I'd be incensed at this bullshit happening within my community. I try to teach my child high standards of behavior and the difference between right and wrong; these supposed 'leaders' tell my child that because they are black those standards are too high. That they can't possibly be expected to understand and live fair play and respect for the rules, and that if they screw up and get caught they can just scream 'racism' nonsensically.

You saw the same pathetic, enraging excuses made in the Atlanta school cheating scandal. I'd be infuriated that such pitiful excuses for role models were teaching my children and leading their schools.

Question for folks. Didn't Jackie Robinson West eliminate Mo'Ne Davis and her Mid-Atlantic team from the tournament? Is it not possible that Mo'Ne might have been the pitcher for the championship game if it hadn't been for Chicago cheating?

There's an article in the NY Post about the guy who blew the whistle on this. He's been getting death threats and is under police protection.. The article states that he was the coach of a rival Little League team. His team lost, 43-2, to that team so his suspicions were raised.......I don't think an episode like this is in any way typical of the black community. But the fact that the larger community is rallying in support of blatant cheaters is troubling and compounds the wrong.

I don't think an episode like this is in any way typical of the black community. But the fact that the larger community is rallying in support of blatant cheaters is troubling and compounds the wrong.

I think I understand what you’re saying but when a community rallies around someone who acts badly – whether it was the cheating of the Chicago little league team or the rallying around dead thugs like Trayvon Martin or Michael Brown – because they’re “one of us,” I think it’s fair to say that by doing so they have implicitly condoned that behavior. You don’t get to say “we believe in honesty and acting with integrity” when you’ve shown that you’ll reflexively circle the wagons around someone who acts dishonestly and without integrity so long as they look like you.

Do you have any evidence that this team was singled-out for punishment while other known offenders went unpunished? Cuz' this just has to be racism, doesn't it John? ....Hey, they're a black team with black parents and black coaches...surely the fact that they cheated should be overlooked for them... But you are not a racist, are you Johnny-boy?

A common tactic to punish is to suddenly enforce a technicality that has been ignored before. Employers do this all the time if they want to fire someone but need a reason.

The way to tell if this is happening is by looking at the record of how the rule is enforced. If it's never enforced, except this once, then it shouldn't be valid. In that case, it could really be racism.

Did that happen? IDK. We aren't told about previous violations of the rules or how they were handled.

Another question is how this team got so far but no one noticed any violations until the championships.

The Chicago team's coach said the same thing- why wasn't the same level of scrutiny applied to the other teams in the tournament? Sure, Chicago won, and that's a reason, but what about the teams that complained? What if they violated the rules? Wouldn't that change things?

This isn't an easy call. Some sports have so many unenforced rules that rules lawyering is part of the game.

The rules, as explained by the media sounds odd, in that they had players out-of-their-district. I have no clue how the districts are determine or if they are flaky. Did they cheat by falsifying documents as to players domicile or what?

There are definitely more young guys throwing 90 but the pitching isn't better overall. And no one has pitched with the inverted W motion for a whole career. Strasberg has been a bust along with the others who blow out their arm with that motion. Chris Sale on the White Sox is fun to watch but he's already blown out his arm once.

Kershaw and Bumgartner are pitchers. Too many guys throw hard but can't pitch.

And, of course, screaming about racism is a strategy, too. It brings a lot of attention to the case. Who here was following Little League baseball? I wasn't. The racism charge is a way to get the other teams investigated, and the whole process investigated. Chicago is making the other teams pay a price for complaining. The League, too.

It's all political. I doubt there was a racial motive to any of it. But the issue of selective enforcement of the rules is a valid one, if it turns out that other teams or past winners got away with it.

JRW did in fact put out the Pennsylvania team in the U.S. semi-final, but Mo'Ne did not pitch in that game (she'd started the previous game- the day before- where they'd lost to the 8-1 Nevada team). However, you may be on to something in that if the JRW team had not used ineligible players in the semi-final, perhaps Philadelphia might have advanced and in which case maybe Mo'Ne would have rebounded in a second performance against Nevada and pitched them to the US championship, thereby becoming a first of a very different kind.

We'll never know, of course. But even if all that had unfolded, I don't think they would have won the world title against Seoul. The Koreans were just way too good last year.

the concept of a little league world series is not in keeping with the purpose of little league baseball. kids 12 and under should be playing with their friends and neighbors.

I think parents should not let their kids get into "travel" baseball (speaking as the father of a fine young athlete who did play well on regionally focused teams). Let them be kids. Let parents be parents and stay in the community not travel about the country for NO REAL PURPOSE BUT PARENT EGO>

I don't disagree with you that if the rules are only being selectively enforced, then it could suggest that more nefarious motives than "fair play" was at work. This happens with a lot of the premier college football programs and whom the NCAA slaps and whom they don't for recruiting, scholastic or booster violations is often quite frustrating for fans.

But in this case, JRW's malfeasance was uncovered after a complaint from a local coach from a competing district whose team was smashed by JRW during the earliest qualification rounds. We don't have any evidence of complaints that the Nevada team cheated in their own qualifying round- but who knows, maybe now some of them will emerge and they'll have to de-crown Nevada and prop up Philadelphia, and then maybe Philly will receive allegations and they'll have to de-throne them, and so on until Tennessee or South Dakota (the two worst American teams in the tournament) are the only ones left standing.

John Lynch said...Were the rules enforced consistently on every team? If every team was violating the rules, singling out the winner is unfair.

No one knows, but I kinda doubt that every team was violating the rules. If there's a league that's cheating, chances are good that someone else knows about it and would say something about it, as happened in this case.

And I'd also say this -- I'm sure that the Little League organization didn't want to strip the Chicago team of its title; their run was a great story. More importantly, it's been increasingly difficult to get African-American kids to be interested in baseball. It's not in the interest of Little League to screw over a team like Jackie Robinson West. The problem is, you can't look the other way, because if you do, then you'll see everyone else start to assemble regional All-Star teams. That would make it even harder for a team from the South Side of Chicago to ever have a chance at playing in Williamsport.

Don't know enough about the story to tell for sure that the team cheated. I assume though that the league wouldn't bring up the allegations unless they had some evidence that in fact they were ineligible.And if they were, they deserve to have their records expunged. And of course the usual crowd has to play the race card.

John Lynch, there have been at least two Little a League World Champions (yes, teams that won the big one) that were stripped of their championships for using ineligible players, either due to age or geographical violations. Once the evidence was presented and confirmed, Little League had no choice but to proceed as it did.

Something is fishy here. First they find, after an examination, that the team was in compliance, and then six months later they are found to have violated the rule? Which examination was flawed, the first one or the second one?

This plus no facts whatsoever on what the supposed violations were, or what the evidence was. This leaves me unconvinced. Little League has a lot of explaining to do, including why they do not have a more convincing presentation as to why this is a fair result.

I do wish Jesse Jackson were not involved. He just polarizes and inflames the situation.

There are a lot of high powered lawyers in Chicago who are quite glad to represent Gitmo prisoners and Death Row inmates.How about a little pro bono for Jackie Robinson?

Thorley Winston said...What I’m not seeing anywhere in the story is where the members of the team or their supporters claim that in fact their players complied with the rules of the game which lead to their later disqualification.

Nor am I seeing any detail about the violations and the evidence thereof. Perhaps there is convincing evidence. If so, Little League should provide it.

They may not be the champions, but they were the best team. Except those Koreans. The Asians were long suspected of stacking their teams with ringers. The Centro Americanos were accused of using overage players.

No matter how this shakes out, it is a bad job by the Little League organization. Too little info. Too late. Too mysterious.

"This is what Obama was responding to: After being introduced by Obama’s church’s new pastor — Rev. Otis Moss — Rev. Pfleger talks about the importance of taking on "white entitlement and supremacy wherever it raises its head.""Rev. Moss, when Hillary was crying, and people said that was put on, I really don’t believe it was put on," Pfleger says from the pulpit. "I really believe that she just always thought, ‘This is mine! I’m Bill’s wife, I’m white, and this is mine! I just gotta get up and step into the plate.’ And then out of nowhere came, ‘Hey, I’m Barack Obama,’ and she said, ‘Oh, damn! Where did you come from? I’m white! I’m entitled! There’s a black man stealing my show!’ "

Little League cares about character. It is right on their logo--Character, Courage, Loyalty.

http://www.littleleague.org/Little_League_Online.htm

And they publish a code of conduct for local teams to use with the parents.

Has Reverend Jesse Jackson every preached a sermon on changing your character away from your sinful nature? In my church we hear that message regularly. God wants his followers to use his strength for his purposes and overcoming sin is one of God's purposes.

Reverend Jackson--where do you stand on the issue of overcoming sin? I am just curious in light of your behavior on this issue.

Major League Baseball needs an inflow of young black athletes. The problem is that the sports we love to watch chew up and spit out a thousand boys who dedicate their life to achieving high level success for every man who makes it to "the show." Whether that is MLB, The NFL, whatever. Canada is full of young men who spent their lives and sacrificed their educations to play junior hockey and never got a sniff of the NHL.

Since the prevailing view is every white American is a racist and every action is saturated in either overt or concealed racism, why bother to single out any particular person or group or incident as racist? Of course it's racist. My eating a bowl of Cheerios is racist. My breathing is racist, since so many people of color have had that fundamental biological right stolen from them.

When you take a game that should be kids having fun and turn it into a high-stakes 3 ring circus, this is what happens. Why on earth do we have 12 year olds playing a "World Series"? The parents have ruined what should be a normal childhood experience, and the leagues have let them. Even when there's no cheating, it's still an awful system.

I've been thinking this over for a while, because HS baseball tryouts have been going on all over town. Houston is baseball-mad. If you want to play baseball here, you need to play 3 seasons a year from the time you're 6. The boys play regular spring Little League, then do tournament league(s) in the summer, and then "fall ball". Fall ball is sometimes in addition to another round of tournament teams or perhaps league soccer or football, depending on how pushy your parents are. Then there's strength and conditioning classes, extra skills classes, camps, etc. You better go to them all, or you might fall behind. The result: every single boy trying out for the HS freshman team is on this level, but as many as 30% of them won't even make it the team. So here you are, 15 years old, having played a sport non-stop for 10 years, loved, lived and breathed it, and no one wants you anymore. Little League is over, and the Senior ball here is a tournament "dream team" that doesn't even take all the HS team players. Why? Because they've been to their own World Series twice in recent years. Hope you enjoyed it while it lasted, kiddo. Maybe you can torture your own kid like this someday, and he'll make it.

Because of the pressure it puts on kids, I've never really liked Little League and I'm glad my boys had no interest in baseball. But after watching the HS tryout circus, I am even happier it's not their sport. Better a bloody nose in a rugby game, where everyone is welcome to play as long as they put in the work. And where you can still play at 40, if you so desire. To me that's the point of a sport - something to do as long as you want, that's built on not just athleticism but a community of friends. I'll take a leisurely 3rd Half on a sunny afternoon over a World Series, any day.

John Lynch:Bullshit...you weren't asking a question, you were using a passive-aggressive method to insinuate unfairness/racism. Or else you were simply stating a moral concern that is prima fascia obvious, i.e. if others cheat; they should be punished too. But that is such a stupid point to make. Based on your comment I had to choose between calling you stupid and/or calling you dishonest. Frankly, I couldn't have made a wrong selection.You could have alleviated your 'concern' via a simple web-search....but hey, you couldn't have the plausible deniability needed to impugn others. Really, you are quite the schmuck.